Edit page | Page history | Printable version

tambour

1. A kind of small flat drum; a tambourine.

2. A small frame, commonly circular, and somewhat resembling a tambourine, used for stretching, and firmly holding, a portion of cloth that is to be embroidered; also, the embroidery done upon such a frame; called also, in the latter sense, tambour work.

3. Same as drum.

4. A work usually in the form of a redan, to inclose a space before a door or staircase, or at the gorge of a larger work. It is arranged like a stockade.

5. (Science: physiology) A shallow metallic cup or drum, with a thin elastic membrane supporting a writing lever. Two or more of these are connected by an india rubber tube, and used to transmit and register the movements of the pulse or of any pulsating artery.